Recent updates

Surrey County Council is advertising yet again for temporary staff with salaries in excess of £90k. The latest is for a Programme Manager to oversee the move from County Hall.

Cllr Chris Botten, Leader of the Liberal Democrats at Surrey County Council, said:

"The use of temporary staff runs the risk that if they fail to deliver long term solutions to the problems set, they are long gone before the problems come to light but are enriched by their generous salary.

Surrey Liberal Democrats remain opposed to the third runway at Heathrow, and whilst we appreciate this consultation is about changing the airspace, it is clear that not all of the proposals being consulted on are intended for the existence of only two runways. Therefore, we feel it poignant to reiterate our opposition to the expansion of Heathrow at this point, before establishing our position on the specific consultation issues. The need for further airport expansion is clear from increased efforts to open up global mobility, however, we feel expansion would be better utilised somewhere other than the South East of England which is already plagued by numerous airports. The South East of England will not be able to cope with the expansion of Heathrow as there is a serious lack of infrastructure to cope with all the consequences a bigger airport will cause. The investment into expansion and thus infrastructure would be better spent elsewhere in the country, and could be used to spread the economic opportunity to the North of England, where it is so desperately needed.

From Claire Malcomson, Liberal Democrat District Councillor for The Holmwoods:

Last year a colleague and I started a pressure group MARFT ( Mole Valley Against Rural Fly-tipping). We have joined together with the CPRE, Surrey Willdlife Trust and the National Trust in order to fight fly-tipping and prosecute the culprits. It costs the NT £30,000 p.a to clear up tips on their land in East Surrey.

Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners are leading the campaign to protect and strengthen Mole Valley's libraries during the next round of Tory cuts at Surrey County Council.

Not satisfied with plans to close Leatherhead Children's Centre and Dorking Recycling Centre, Conservatives on Surrey County Council have decided to cut funding for Surrey's libraries by nearly 30%. The Council has not said where library cuts will fall - a consultation is expected after the next local elections - but a briefing document notes that just 18 libraries account for 65% of all library visits - implying that smaller libraries are not part of the Tory "plan".

At the Surrey County Council Cabinet meeting on 29th January a decision was made to recommend closure of the Leatherhead Children's Centre and cut funding to the Dorking Children's Centre by 58%, two of the few "shining stars" in the Surrey Children's Services organisation.

Surrey Children's Services were rated as "inadequate" by Ofsted less than a year ago and a new Director has since been recruited to correct this appalling indictment.

These draconian and damaging cuts are being presented to the public by Surrey CC as a strategy to improve the service, while in reality are simply cuts to save costs.

However good the track record and qualifications of the new Director of Children's Services, it is not possible to make a plan to safely care for the most vulnerable children in our community in such a short period in post.

It is an accepted fact that the early intervention in the lives of children in vulnerable situations provided by Children's Centres, pays long term dividends and saves future costs in schools, probation services, police services and other public services to say nothing of the benefits to those children and their families.

The Surrey County Council Cabinet will bring this proposal to a full Council Meeting on Tuesday 5th February and I challenge you to join our Liberal Democrat Councillors and vote against these cuts.

The County Council's Cabinet has decided to postpone the closure of the Dorking Tip until 1 October 2019.

However, even with this reprieve, the Dorking Tip will be restricted to only accepting recyclable material and it will still be closed in the Autumn unless a way of operating the Tip can be identified which will allow a similar level of savings to be made to the savings that will be achieved by closing it.

Only a few days are left to save the Community Recycling Centre at Dorking, whose future will be decided by Surrey County Council's Cabinet on 29th January. The recommendation to the Cabinet following the recent consultation is to close the tip.

The last hope of avoiding closure lies with the localpetition which has so far attracted over 1800 signatures and which will be presented to the Cabinet before it takes its decision.

This open letter to Sir Paul Beresford, MP for Mole Valley, was written by Bob Vance, Chair Mole Valley Liberal Democrats, and printed in the current version of the Dorking Advertiser:

Dear Sir Paul,

Over the next few weeks you will make the most important decisions of your political career on behalf of the residents of your constituents of Mole Valley. We are members of different political parties but I believe we have more things which unite us than divide us. We both campaigned for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union. Based on the information available in 2016 and campaign arguments the majority of the Mole Valley voters agreed with us. However by a small margin the majority of voters in the United Kingdom did not.

I have two major concerns.

Firstly, that the UK will crash out of the EU by accident, which almost no one wants. I therefore implore you to do all you can in Parliament to remove the "No Deal" option from being possible. Secondly, that while the agreement negotiated by the Prime Minister may be a more logical and safer option than crashing out, many people are of the view that it will have damaging social and economic consequences which the electorate do not feel they have voted for. Therefore, in the interests of the cohesion of the nation, I ask you to put the good of the nation ahead of party loyalty and support a Peoples Vote, where we ask the electorate to confirm that, based on the terms of the Brexit withdrawal agreement which the Prime Minister considers is the best that can be negotiated, that a majority still supports leaving the EU, and if not that we should remain in the EU.

Responding to the publication of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services report into Surrey Fire and Rescue, Cllr Chris Botten, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group at Surrey County Council said:

"Yet again we read of a Surrey Service which has been judged Requires Improvement or Inadequate. Perhaps the report's most troubling criticism is that the service doesn't have a robust operational model and needs to ensure it has enough resources, (people and equipment) available to respond to risk in line with its risk management plan.

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